“People Are Going To Die”

“People Are Going To Die” – J-m Deputy Mayor Warned Police 2 Hrs. Before Disaster

Two hours before the unfathomable mass casualty occurred, Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Yossi Deitsch warned the police that a tragedy was imminent, B’Chadrei Chareidim reported.

Deitsch told B’Chadrei that he took part in the Boyaner hadlaka two hours before the tragedy and already then he felt the dangerous crushing force of the crowd. “I was being crushed in an unprecedented manner,” he said.

Due to the crowding, he decided to give up on his usual custom of standing and davening at the western entrance, next to the area where the tragedy occurred, and returned home early. His life was saved but sadly, so many others weren’t.

Deitsch slammed the police, saying that he warned them of imminent disaster. “What occurred could have happened two hours beforehand at the Boyaner hadlaka,” he said. 

“The police saw the crowding but didn’t take appropriate action to relieve it. Instead of opening an exit way, they threatened them with pepper spray.”

“I turned to a police officer and warned him that people were going to die. I told him: 

‘You’re not ashamed? You see that people are going to die!’ But there was no one to talk to,” Deitsch asserted.